“Wake Up!,” the highly anticipated hot new collaboration album from John Legend and The Roots, is a series of mostly cover songs from the 1960’s and 70’s, spawned from the swell of young political interest in the 2008 election season. Able to be appreciated by music lovers across the genres, the album has been designed to capture and re-ignite the revolutionary feelings and explosive political involvement seen from the nation’s youth. The album sends a deep message to a young culture that relies on instantaneous communication not to lose the feelings that helped cement their own roots in the history books. With revamped and expertly covered songs, John Legend and The Roots have produced an album of significant importance and timely relevance.
The album, which debuted September 21, was the Number 3 album downloaded on iTunes days after its release and was the subject of a live concert on YouTube that reached hundreds of thousands of online viewers. Combining its updated sound with its soulful influence and featuring a slew of modern artists, John Legend and The Roots have been able to capture and appeal to large audiences as they seek to “Wake Up!” a generation.